In Snowy Syracuse, a December That’s Whiter Than Usual

Walking past towering snowbanks in Syracuse is part of winter living.Credit
Heather Ainsworth for The New York Times

SYRACUSE — In some places, as the first days of winter pass, the prospect of a white Christmas is just that: a possibility, sometimes realized, sometimes not.

But in this city, hard by the Snow Belt beneath Lake Ontario, there is no need for any caveat. By this time, every year, it has snowed so heavily and so often that any more would be incomprehensible.

Syracuse has met the incomprehensible. As of Tuesday, even before winter had officially begun — at 6:38 p.m. Eastern time — 71.9 inches of snow had fallen this month, making it the city’s snowiest December on record.

There has been at least a trace of snow on all but four days so far this month. In one four-day stretch last week, 43.2 inches came down. Never mind the inch or so that fell earlier in the fall.

There are areas of New York where a modest snowfall can be a great white disruption, closing schools and airports, paralyzing businesses and erasing traffic from most streets.

Syracuse is not one of those places. As much as the people here enjoy complaining about the snow, they may take greater pleasure mocking the less hardy citizens, for whom snowfall is a catastrophe rather than just weather.

Through all of this snow, public schools in Syracuse closed for only two days, and the airport shut down for 15 minutes. Piles of cleared snow grew to two-story heights, but the roads were plowed and kept open.

“We got calls from all over asking us to relay horror stories, and we said, ‘We don’t have any; everything’s fine in Syracuse,’ ” Mayor Stephanie A. Miner said. “I suppose if we’d had a tornado warning or a hurricane warning, we’d be at a standstill. But we’ve been dealing with this for a long time.”

Since 1951, the city’s snowfall totals have averaged nearly 10 feet a year. The last time fewer than 100 inches fell in one year was in the winter of 2001-2, when a paltry 59.4 inches came down. That was the lowest annual snowfall since the National Weather Service began recording snowfall statistics here in 1951; the highest came in 1992-93, when 192.1 inches fell.

Perhaps it makes sense that most Syracuse residents seemed to regard the extra snow this year as a visit from a cranky, if not altogether unpleasant, older relative.

“Oh, we’re just used to it,” said George McGuire, 41, a lawyer, who did not seem a bit bothered by the mound of snow at his side: it stood about 6 feet high and 10 feet wide, right in the middle of downtown. “If you had this kind of snow, you’d be used to it, too.”

Not all Syracuse residents were quite so understanding of people from afar, who might be less accustomed to such a pounding.

“In New York City, you guys get a few inches, you close down,” said Kathy Pucello, 45, a secretary. “And we’ve gotten like 10 feet!”

But in fairness to those farther south, not all cities are quite so well prepared.

Syracuse devotes an entire bureau of its Department of Public Works to snow and ice clearing during the winter, which lasts about five months here. The public works commissioner, Pete O’Connor, said his department watched its overtime budget year-round to make sure it could afford to pay for the worst winter storms, when plows are run around the clock in 12-hour shifts.

Once a good pounding lets up, the snow-plow drivers, whom Mr. O’Connor calls snowfighters, haul the powdery remains to a seven-acre lot at the Department of Public Works, where mounds can reach as high as a two- or three-story building. Once the lot reaches capacity, snowfighters start dumping on any city land they can find, like parks and parking lots. So far, there is still room for more.

Despite the challenges all this snow presents, Mr. O’Connor said he still wanted to see more of it — at least enough to mark a record high for any month in Syracuse.

“I want to break the all-time record, and then I hope we never break it again,” Mr. O’Connor said with a chuckle. “Let’s get it in the books and move along.”

Mr. O’Connor may get his wish, said David Nicosia, a meteorologist with the Weather Service’s office in Binghamton, N.Y.

“They’re getting there,” Mr. Nicosia said.

Much of the snow in Syracuse, he explained, comes from what is called the lake effect. Cold air blows down from Canada and picks up moisture from Lake Ontario, then promptly dumps it onto Syracuse. This snow is much fluffier, he said, than what falls in a normal snowstorm in much of the Northeast.

Some Syracuse residents could not be happier about their place in the lake-effect bull’s-eye.

“I can’t get enough of it,” said Russell Hall, 43, the director of marketing at a manufacturing company and an avid skier, who keeps his boots and skis in his car in case the mood strikes him. “I left Minnesota because there was hardly any snow. It was just cold.”

But not all of his neighbors are as enthusiastic.

“People don’t know how to drive in the snow, even here,” said Debra Bassett, 37, a contract coordinator for an energy company. She said a heavy snow often tripled her 30-minute drive home from work. “It amazes me every year.”

While the weather does present challenges for commuters and extra costs for the city — in the second week of this month alone, Syracuse spent nearly $200,000 on salt — a snowy December does have one distinct advantage.

“I’m going to say there is a 100 percent chance Syracuse is going to have a white Christmas,” Mr. Nicosia said. “I’ll put my reputation on the line for that one.”

A version of this article appears in print on December 23, 2010, on page A25 of the New York edition with the headline: As Snowy Syracuse Breaks a Monthly Record, Its Residents Are Not Fazed. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe